With the improvement of people's living standard, one who wishes to buy a certain electronic product would pay as much attention to the physical appearance of the electronic product as to the product's functions, and this is especially true of consumer electronics such as mobile phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and tablet PCs. Nowadays, with a view to high portability and easy storage, it is generally desired that the physical appearance of a consumer electronic product conform to the design concept of “being slimmer and smaller”. On the other hand, high performance is still expected of such electronic products. Therefore, more and more electronic product manufacturers have changed their original product designs in order to meet user needs and secure a position in the market of consumer electronics.
For a consumer electronic product to maintain high performance, the product's electronic components (e.g., connectors) must be capable of high-density energy transmission. Nevertheless, the energy (e.g., electricity) being transmitted generates heat due to the impedance of the transmission path (e.g., metal terminals), and the amount of heat thus generated is in direct proportion to the energy transmission density. In other words, a consumer electronic product capable of high-density energy transmission must generate considerable heat. Further, as a consumer electronic product is downsized, so must be its electronic components; otherwise, the desired variety of electronic components (e.g., connectors, resistors, capacitors, etc.) cannot be fitted into the product's limited interior space. However, the downsizing of the electronic components not only increases the design complexity of the consumer electronic product, but also gives rise to heat management issues that need to be addressed during the design phase, for the impedance of a metal terminal increases as the thickness, and hence the cross-sectional area, of the terminal is reduced.
For instance, the battery capacity of a mobile phone (i.e., a consumer electronic product) must be significantly increased if it is desired to extend the standby time of the mobile phone and to allow multiple application programs of the mobile phone to remain in operation for a longer period of time. Nonetheless, a larger battery capacity means a larger supply current from the battery and consequently a larger amount of heat generated by the connector electrically connected to the battery. As previously mentioned, given the trend toward miniaturization of consumer electronics, existing connectors are only downsized proportionally but are not modified in structural design; hence, these connectors suffer from low heat dissipation efficiency. The shortcomings of existing connector designs are now explained in further detail with reference to a conventional connector whose sectional view is presented in FIG. 1.
FIG. 1 shows a connector 1 for a battery, wherein the connector 1 includes a cover 11 and a plurality of metal terminals 13. The cover 11 is installed on a circuit board 15 and defines a plurality of receiving spaces 111 therein. Each metal terminal 13 is bent into a wavy configuration and fitted in a corresponding one of the receiving spaces 111. The front section of each metal terminal 13 passes through a lateral side of the cover 11 and is exposed from the cover 11. Meanwhile, the rear section of each metal terminal 13 is connected to a metal contact 151 of the circuit board 15. Thus, when the front sections of the metal terminals 13 are connected to the electrode terminals of a battery, the supply current of the battery can flow to the circuit board 15 by way of the metal terminals 13. However, as stated before, the larger the supply current of the battery is, the more heat each metal terminal 13 will generate. Now that the middle section of each metal terminal 13 provides a relatively large area for heat dissipation but is encased in the cover 11, the heat dissipated from the metal terminals 13 will accumulate in the cover 11, which is nevertheless made of a plastic material and therefore incapable of effective heat exchange with the ambient air. As a result, the heat accumulated in the connector 1 cannot be efficiently dissipated, and the temperature of the entire connector 1 rises rapidly, thus not only subjecting the components of the connector 1 to the risks of premature aging caused by extended exposure to high heat, but also shortening the service lives of the electronic components adjacent to the connector 1.
In addition, referring to FIG. 1, the huge amount of heat accumulated in the connector 1 will accelerate oxidation of the metal terminals 13 respectively enclosed in the receiving spaces 111. Once the metal terminals 13 are oxidized, their impedance increases, and more heat is generated by the metal terminals 13. This vicious circle will cut short the service life of the consumer electronic product equipped with the connector 1 and impair the quality of all products using such a connector. Consequently, the manufacturers will have to face customer complaints or even loss of customers.
To sum up, the structures of the conventional connectors have not been changed according to the current design trend of consumer electronics toward smaller and lighter products, so heat accumulation is very likely to occur in the conventional connectors and cause serious heat management problems to those consumer electronic products using such connectors. Therefore, it is an important issue in the electronic industry to design a novel connector which satisfies the size requirements of increasingly smaller consumer electronics, which has better performance than its prior art counterparts, and whose electronic components, though densely packed in a limited space, still allow good heat dissipation.